Woman with a Red Necklace 1918

This is Modigliani’s “Woman with a Red Necklace” and you can see that he's working with oil on canvas. I find myself wondering how he actually made it. There’s this quiet blue, that spreads out as a backdrop, with a figure that emerges through thin washes of color. I imagine him standing there, trying to find her form—smoothing out the surface with a rag, maybe? You know, I can almost feel Modigliani’s anxiety, or maybe his tenderness as he is searching for the model’s presence. I like the way that the red necklace pops against the blue, and then, there’s this really beautiful earthy tone that almost feels like it's anchoring the figure to the ground. The whole thing is so heartfelt! It’s a conversation with so many other paintings, so many other artists. It makes me think about how much we, as artists, are in an ongoing dialogue across time. It's as though we are constantly inspiring each other's creativity.